This invention relates to mop cleaning buckets and wringers for janitorial cleaning use.
Chemicals, such as detergents and disinfectants, are often added to mop bucket cleaning water as a cleaning aid. Presently, these chemicals are intended to be added to mop buckets by measuring the correct amount to be added according to the bucket size, or by dropping in a sachet containing a prescribed chemical quantity which is then released into the cleaning water. However, it is typical that the cleaning chemicals are not precisely added, but merely poured into the mop bucket on a “that looks about right” basis, which all too frequently becomes a ‘more is better’ over-addition. Dumping in excessive cleaning chemicals is wasteful of the costly materials, and can be injurious to surfaces. It is obviously preferable to use an appropriate amount of chemical.
A sachet of cleaning chemical offers a predetermined quantity of chemical additive. However, sachets are expensive to produce, result in litter, and a user cannot be relied upon to add a correct number of sachets dependent on the amount of cleaning water in the bucket.
Complying with manufacturer's instructions for cleaning chemical dosing has always been a significant problem in the cleaning industry. The tendency of cleaners is always to overdose. Very rarely do cleaners ‘read the label’ to follow manufacturer's instructions for precise measurement of chemicals. In most cases, without measuring the volume of water in the mop bucket, the cleaner pours what they “believe” to be a fair portion of detergent directly into the water without any effort to check amounts. In the trade, it is universally described as the “glug glug” process.
Various procedures have been devised in an attempt to “control” the amount of cleaning chemicals being added to mop buckets. Some of these arrangements are extremely complicated, wasteful, impractical and ineffectual.
Portion pack sachets, as mentioned above, are one type of method used to control the ratio of chemical agent to cleaning water. The use of plastic packaging to measure a precise portion of chemicals is widespread. The main problem with this method is that mop bucket capacity variance is huge (up to 60 different capacities and styles of mop bucket exist in the United Kingdom market alone) and this makes such a system totally unreliable. The cost of packaging each tiny portion is hugely wasteful. The whole system of sachet proportioning is an economic and environmental failure.
Mix-and-measure metering systems are also known. However, these kinds of systems are expensive and complicated to operate in a cleaning industry where transient labour, often being foreign language speaking, is normal. Training is thus difficult, and misuse of the system is rife.
Detergent automatically added to tap water is another method used. This method is common, and is often used in kitchens where access to running water is easily available. Detergent is mixed with the water before reaching the tap, so that when the tap is operated, a pre-mixed liquid of water and chemical additive flows out. This system is used for all aspects of cleaning from dishwashing to floor mopping. The huge weakness of this system is that floor mopping cannot be treated in the same manner as dishwashing. Consequently, the ratio of chemical to cleaning water is often inappropriate for surface cleaning.
The present invention seeks to overcome these problems in an inexpensive but reliable cleaning system, utilising bulk supply of chemical agent.